The War on Terror and Contemporary U.S.-European Relations

The Bush Administration\u27s WAR ON TERROR and its implications for U.S.European relations often evoke contradictory views among Americans. On the one hand, they can generate considerable apprehension since European views toward Americans generally-and President Bush in particularhas been caricatured in a number of unflattering ways. Recall, for example, the headline in the British tabloid, the Daily Mirror, immediately after the November 2004 presidential election: How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB? On the other hand, those topics can evoke the considerable affection that Europeans have for the American people, if not always for their government, in the aftermath of 9/11. Furthermore, the generally warm receptions that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush received in early 2005 on their charm offensive to Europe and the cooperative efforts over Iran more recently reflect the reservoir of goodwill across the Atlantic